Old Friends
by SuzieQT
Summary: Ryoma's childhood friend comes to Japan to live with his family for a year or two. Not a mary-sue even though it might look it in the beginning.
1. Beginning

Disclaimer: I do not own _Prince of Tennis_, (no matter how much I want to) If anyone thought I did, well, I would be wondering if you were smoking PoT….hahaha…no, it really wasn't funny….

A/N: This story has been bugging me for a while so i am justgoing to put it down.I know this story is probably really bad and sounds mary-sue-ish but it really and truely isnt, I love FujiRyo, TezuFuji, TezuRyo, OshiEiji pairings too much to add a mary sue... thiswill probably have some sort of pairing later on so just Fyi.

Beginnings (corny,I know)

"Welcome to Japan," the captain's voice crackled across the PA system, "the time is 10:37 am local time, we should be landing in a few moments, Please take your seats and prepare for landing. And again, welcome to Japan ."

While the stewards and stewardess helped passengers get ready, a girl with blue black hair stared out of the tiny plane window. Her body was twisted to take full advantage of the small 6x8 inch window; her eyes looked on the Japanese geography with wonder. Anyone looking at her would see a girl returning to her home country, but in reality, she was alien to this country as Columbus was to America .

"Um, sorry to disturb you but you must bring your chair back to the upright position." The steward said interrupting her musings.

"Oh, I'm sorry. This is the first time I've been in Japan , actually Asia , I wanted to see everything." It would take more will than the poor over worked steward had to not react to the girls smile. Although this was his second cross continent flight, there was something in the girl's grin that was just infectious. It seemed to lift the exhaustion and jetlag of the flights from his mind. He felt the smile spread across his tired face. It continued until even after the plane landed, all he knew was this girl was something else.

The plane landed smoothly and the passengers began to depart, the steward noticed that the girl was reaching into the over head compartment. He went to help her, "Do you need help getting something down?" when she nodded he continued, "which bag is it?"

"That one," she pointed to the light blue bag with black stripes towards the back of the compartment. "Please be careful, there are some really fragile items in there for my friends."

"Okay," it took more effort than the steward thought to extract the bag; it turned out to be a multiple racket bag. "Do you play Tennis?"

"Only a little and I just play for fun. Mostly I just use the bag as a regular bag." She smile up at him again, "thank you for the help and the flight was just wonderful."

_I really should have learned more Japanese and more about their culture before I decided that it would be a great idea to travel to Japan ._ The blue-black haired girl mused to herself. She at a normal height for her age she was five feet five inches tall, actually in her high school she was considered lower average. However in this strange country she felt like a giant, all the women were a head shorter then she was, she was the height of most the taller men. _Dammit why do people have to be so short_, instead of feeling superior, like she had told her friends she felt like a side show freak. _Everyone is probably staring at me, staring at the American Godzilla._

Actually, she blended in fairly well with all the traffic. The only thing that was different was that she was slightly taller than most folks but she wasn't quite towering above them like she felt.

The best course of action she felt was to quickly find a taxi to bring her to where she was staying. She dragged her luggage and adjusted the strap to her tennis bag on her shoulder and went to the customer service counter in the airport, "kon-nee-che-wa, go-men, do you speak English?" she ended the sentence quickly in English, the customer service officer nodded, "where would I find the taxis?"

The officer told her in broken but passable English that the taxi "station" was located two terminals down and toward the right. "Arigato," the girl said with a wave. She tried to follow the directions but she got lost, and it took several attempts for her to find the taxis.

She breathed a sigh of relief when she flagged down a taxi and loaded her bags and got into the back of the car. She told the driver the address where she wanted to go. Maybe my Japanese isn't as bad as I thought it was, if the driver understood everything I said. _What? He thinks I am Japanese? Why else would he be talking to me in Japanese…I can make out about 75 percent of what he is saying…better humor him or else he might try to scam me… _that was one of the things she learned when she traveled around Europe, tourist and foreigners were taken advantage of when they least suspected it. It wasn't that hard to convince the driver, all he did was talk in a monolog pausing only enough for her to insert a "hai" or an "iie" when it was needed.

When he stopped and said they were at the address she thanked him and paid him, adding a good tip. He helped unload her luggage all except for her tennis bag, which she kept with her, not trusting the driver's driving skills. He said goodbye and drove off.

It was along time, well not really, about half a year since Ryoma and his family moved back to Japan . She and Ryoma, the son, were about the same age, she only younger then he was by a month. The place that was right in front of her looked more like a temple then a home, it had a concrete wall around the yard and in the middle of it was a central building. From the front, she could barely make out a gazebo with one of those big bells that monks ring. Since when did the family turn into monks? It made her think that she had the wrong address, before she could panic she saw a sign, "Echizen Residence" the plaque said.

So I didn't have the wrong address. She looked around the fence for some sort of doorbell but couldn't see any. She pushed the door to see if it was open, and sure enough it was open. No one was around. She brought her luggage up to the front door and knocked. Nothing. She knocked again. Silence.


	2. Surprise

Surprise

So I didn't have the wrong address. She looked around the fence for some sort of doorbell but couldn't see any. She pushed the door to see if it was open, and sure enough it was open. No one was around. She brought her luggage up to the front door and knocked. Nothing. She knocked again. Silence.

I guess I should check the backyard, she left her luggage at the door and wandered towards the back. She saw the back of somebody lying under the gazebo bell. It looked like a monk's robe, careful to not disturb him too much if he was meditating, "gomen nasai, but would you please tell me where the family has gone?" she said in Japanese.

"It depends, who is doing the asking?" the man turned his head towards her.

She nearly dropped her precious bag, her jaw however did completely drop. "MR. ECHIZEN?" she nearly shouted in her surprise.

"C-C-CINDY?" Echizen's father fell from his seat on the edge of the gazebo onto the ground, what he was reading flew in the air landing a few feet away from Cindy. "YOU AREN'T SUPPOSED TO COME UNTIL TOMARROW!"

She looked at the magazine that was in front of her, things never cease to amaze. Even though he looks like a monk Ryoma's dad is still a pervert. Cindy picked up the magazine without even the slightest hesitation and walked towards him. "Still looking at dirty mags huh?" she handed it to him, although he looked at partially nude pictures of girls all day long,he was harmless. Growing up with Ryoma, she had gotten used to that particular bad habit of "pop's"

"I called yesterday and Riko agreed that it was better for me to come on Friday instead of Saturday because it would easier to enroll when there were people actually in the school offices to process me. Then I wouldn't be missing more school and I would be able to start school at the beginning of next week. It must have slipped her mind, what with work and stuff…can you pay attention to me, instead of your dirty pictures?"

_This is hopeless_, she thought. After a bit of time passed she finally gave up, "hey pops, where is Ryoma?"

"Hum? Oh, the kid's in school…"

"Where?"

"Seigaku…"

"I know what it is called, I am going to be going to that school, if you have forgotten. I meant, where is it?"

"…"

_This is getting really annoying,_ she wanted to say but she knew that it would only be a waste of breath, if it didn't involve girls or tennis he was oblivious. "Where should I my luggage?" she finally asked

"House…unlocked…"

_I give up, he can be so dense. But God help anyone who accidentally moves one of his mags._ She trudged back to the front door and turned the door knob. _Geze, aren't they afraid of theives? Then agian,do theives really want to rob a temple? _She look walked up the stairs checking out the house, trying to find her room. She passed what looked like Ryoma's room, there was a group picture and a bunch of textbooks on the desk and Karupin was taking a nap on the bed.

She smiled when she saw Karupin, Ryoma's precious Hemilyan cat. Few people outside Ryoma's immediate family and friends knew how deeply he cared for that two toned cat.

The bedroom across the hall from Ryoma's, she guessed, was hers. It was expectedly devoid of any person's personality. She placed the bag she was caring on the bed and went downstairs and began the long process of transporting her bags upstairs, it took three trips.

There done. When she finally moved everything up to her room, she plopped onto the bed. As much as she hated to move it was probably better to get to her school and had in the enrollment papers as soon as possible. It was at these times when she really hated her "get things done when you can," motto, or what she was trying to make into her motto. She emptied all of the objects out of her tennis bag, various things fell out of it; not surprisingly there were tennis rackets, but several objects wrapped in newspaper and a file folder containing her school documents also fell onto the bed.

She looked at the wrapped objects and carefully picked them up, and put them onto the dresser. She then looked at the rackets and then at her black purse, she decided that she would bring her tennis bag since it was bigger and thus could hold what she needed. She repacked her tennis bag, _I am going to need that,_ she picked up the file folder and placed it into one of the front compartments. _Map and address, all go with the papers. Let's see, I got my wallet, _she patted her wallet, which were now in the front pocket of her jeans, _what else do I need? Rackets go to the back compartment and a change of clothes, maybe me and Ryoma could have a game later. Okay, so wallet, map, address, school stuff, tennis stuff, multipurpose leatherman,_she buckled the tool in its case on her belt, _and my i-pod. I think that's all._ She zipped up all the compartments on her bag and made sure nothing would fall out before leaving her room.

She opened her tennis bag and pulled out the map of the area. "Seigaku, Seigaku High, where are you," she said to herself as she tried to find it on the map. "There you are."

After getting a good idea of where she would be headed she went back into the back yard and shouted to Echizen's dad "hey pops, I'm headed to Seigaku. I'm going to try and meet up with Ryoma. So I guess I will be back when he normally is."

"…"

"Okay?"

"Hai, Hai…"

His absent minded acceptance reminded Cindy that she had been speaking only English, well mostly English since she left America and that she should strive to only talk in Japanese since she is going to be living here. She turned around and proceeded to walk toward Ryoma's and in a few hours, her own school.

_Oh, crap. Oh, crap. I got lost, that's just great, just great._ She scrounged in her bag looking for her map to find out where she was. I couldn't have gotten that lost. She tried to look for street signs weren't on the map, she deduced that the streets weren't important enough to have on the map.

She put away her map and decided to ask one of the shop keepers where the school is. Most of the shops around her, she noticed was really busy. The sports shop caught her eye, there wasn't anyone in there at the moment.

She walked into the shop and browsed the shop, _I should really get some more grip tape for my racket, and OMG those tennis outfits are so cute_. She ended up only buying black grip tape but she made a mental note to buy the baby blue, after all blue was her favorite color, tennis outfit with matching sweat bands later on. As she was paying for her purchase, the shopkeeper commented offhand that he would have to order more of the grip tape since is so popular. "Um, sir, please could you tell me were Seigaku High is?"

"Seigaku? Huh. You are really close by. The tennis team comes here often to buy things, are you going to Seigaku?" when she nodded, he went on, "they come here so often I give them a discount, since you are also a tennis player, neh? I will also give you one." He gave her the change and the directions.

_Ha, I only missed it by a couple of blocks._ She put away her recent purchase away in her bag, and headed towards school.

_That took longer then I thought_, actually that was an understatement. It took three hours for her papers to get processed. _I didn't actually have to stay for the whole thing._ They went over all of her papers at least twice and were about to go over it again before she informed them that she had a few more stops to make to get situated in this new city. They apologized and let her off the hook.

"Wow, school's already out… where would Ryoma be?" Cindy smiled to herself, there could only be one place, "Tennis courts."

She saw a group of boys lugging a box, well two of them were carrying the box the other boy, dressed in an awful orange striped shirt, and was carrying a handful of fuzzy, yellow tennis balls. The other boys were complaining about the fact that the striped shirt boy was carrying so little, the striped shirt boy then said something about two years of tennis experience.

"Sumi masen, but could you please tell me how to get to the tennis courts?" she asked when she reached them. The boy in the strips only stared, looking from her black baby-T that had the street sign and said, "Dangerous Curves" all the way down to her fitted flared jeans, and white sneakers. "Ah-hm…?"

"Ah…" the other boys pointed, "It's there."

"Domo." Cindy walked towards the general direction of where the boys pointed her to. Pretty soon she heard sounds of balls bouncing and being hit. As she turned the corner she saw four sets of three courts, each surrounded by chain link fencing. There seemed the most activity in one of the middle courts so she headed there. There was a lot of people outside of the chain link enclosure watching what was going on inside, most of them were wearing a sort of blue green uniform, the others ranged in school uniforms and a red and white one.

The teenager with glasses stood in front of the group, he had a commanding sort of presence, she guessed that he was the captain of the tennis team."Regulars, there will be practices matches today."


	3. Practice

Practice

"Hai, Buchou." Everyone said in unison, the captain then broke the group into smaller singles groups and two doubles groups.

She decided it would probably be best if she just waited until the practice matches were over to greet her friend. He was playing against an angry looking guy in a green bandana.

If she didn't know better she would have said that it was a grudge match. The green bandana boy was directly across from her, and her friend had his back towards her. From what she could see from the other side of the court, the bandana guy looked like a cobra or some sort of snake.

"Kaido, Echizen pair. One set match, Echizen to serve..." the referee called out.

From her vantage point she could see that Ryoma was using his right handed serve. "Twist Serve!" a group of people shouted together. And sure enough it was the Twist serve, a serve that went for the body of the opponent. It was a difficult serve to return, but not impossible. After hitting a few twists shots and getting 40-love, Ryoma took pity on the snake boy and hit a returnable shot to the snake boy. Ryoma held his service game.

Cindy knew from the times that she practiced with Ryoma, that he was barely being serious. She didn't realize how long she zoned out but when she started paying attention again the Ryoma was leading 4-1 and it was time that they changed sides.

"Kaido-sempai, mada mada dane."

True to his form, all the Kaido did was hiss. As Ryoma was getting ready to receive the serve, something on the other side of the fence caught his eye. "15-Love…30-Love…" the referee shouted. As Ryoma was staring at the new visitor, his opponent had gotten two serves in. the last call brought his attention back to the game but his attention was divided half on the girl who had just arrived and the other on the game, as a result he lost three consecutive games to Kaido. There was whispering from the blue and white uniformed boys who looked to be the regulars, about how Ryoma was doing. She was too far from them to hear what they thought.

She could however hear the theories that were put forth by the people next to her on why Ryoma was doing so badly. So blamed it on an illness, and others blamed it on girl troubles. But all the other matches stopped to watch what looked like the breakdown of a prodigy. Ryoma lost the next game, the score was now 5 to 4 with Kaido leading. Cindy knew that she was probably the reason, _he must not be concentrating at all at this point, I must have really been a surprise._

"Concentrate, baka, or I am going to beat you…fshhh…" Kaido hissed again.

That must have been enough to snap Ryoma back to the game. The game ended with Ryoma winning seven to five. The captain assigned everyone twenty laps around the courts for watching the match instead of practicing. Everyone moaned but quickly left the courts to run not willing to see if the captain would add additional laps.

Ryoma's only reply was "Mada mada dane," and while he was about to leave the courts the captain stoped him. "Buchou?"

"Echizen, I said twenty laps for everyone." The Captain said in an even voice.

"Hai, Buchou." With that he started to run the laps.

_Wow, all this running he probably is going to be thirsty later, I am getting thirsty just watching him. I wonder if there are any vending machines,_ Cindy headed towards two girls in the green school uniforms, and asked the girl in braids if there were vending machines actually she asked if there was a juice machine but she sort of understood and pointed. Cindy thanked the girl and quickly headed to the vending machines.

"Sakuno! Who was that strange girl who asked you where the 'Juice machine' was? Couldn't she say vending machine? I know she must be here to get my Ryoma-sama's autograph. Sakuno, as the president of Ryoma's fan club it is my duty to protect him from the clutches of strange women…" Cindy heard the girl in the pig tails yell at the girl in the braids.

Cindy smiled and then turned the corner and couldn't hear anything else. _Hel-lo, soda machine… what should I pick…Ponta? What the hell is Ponta? From the button it looks like a peach drink…interesting…I'll get this Ponta drink and if I don't like it I wont get it any more, you live and learn._ She got the change ready to buy the drinks, she pushed the button for the Ponta. _What else should I get? Hum…that looks like lychee soda…I would probably like that…_ Cindy was nearly finished putting in the money for her second drink the girls she asked about the vending machines were right behind her.

"Gomen, but I don't want Ryoma's autograph." Cindy said without turning around and finished putting in money and pushed the button for her soda. "I don't even like him that much." The can dropped down to the pick up area and Cindy bent to retrieve the two cans and turn and left the speechless girls.

At the end of ten laps everyone was panting and after the fifteenth lap most of the non regular members had dropped out. The only ones to complete the twenty laps were the regulars. They were breathing heavily after the twenty laps, the captain then told everyone to take a break.

Cindy came just in time to hear that it was break time. She caught Ryoma's eyes, which was hard considering that he was currently in a head lock with one of the other Regular members, and held up one of the sodas, the ponta.

Cindy watched with an amused smile as the smallest regular tried to get free. She watched as he finally untangled himself from the older tennis player's grip. Saying something, which supiously looked like "mada mada dane," and pulled his Fila hat lower on his head. Ryoma walk towards Cindy with his racket safely tucked between his arm and his side. When he go close enough, took the offered drink.

"When did you get here? I thought you weren't going to come until tomarrow." He said opening his can and taking a sip of it.

"I just got in this morning, your mom was supposed to tell you and pops that I was coming early to get everything in school ready so I could start next week. I am already behind." She said eyeing his hat covered head and said with all the seriousness she could muster. "Is it just me, or are you shrinking?"

Ryoma looked up and raised one of his eyebrows and said, "It's just you."

The corner of Cindy's mouth quirked up, she looked up to see the group of regulars had closed the distance and were halfway between where they were to where Cindy and Ryoma now were. As she opened her can of soda she said, "Hey, Ryoma, When are you going to introduce me to your tennis friends." She said loudly enough that the group inching towards her heard.


	4. Introductions

Introductions

The corner of Cindy's mouth quirked up, she looked up to see the group of regulars had closed the distance and were halfway between where they were to where Cindy and Ryoma now were. As she opened her can of soda she said, "Hey, Ryoma, When are you going to introduce me to your tennis friends." She said loudly enough that the group inching towards her heard.

She took a sip of her soda while the group shed their paralysis and came closer.

"Ehh? Oh, them?" Ryoma started.

"What do you mean 'Oh, them?' chibi?" the guy who had a white piece of tape on the right side of his face said, "never mind o-chibi, I am Kikumaru Eiji. _Yoroshiku! That is…" pointing to the guy in the bandanda_

_"We can make our own introductions," he hissed_

_Eiji continued the introductions like he didn't hear the snake boy's comment. "_Kaidoh Kaoru. That one is Momoshiro Takeshi, The one with the notebook and glasses is Inui Sadaharu, beware of his scary "special" juices, the next one is Kawamura Takashi his family owns the best sushi restaurant ever," with that comment Kawamura blushed, "the smiling one is known as the tennis prodigy Fuji Syusuke," Fuji continued to smile but gave a slight nod towards Cindy, "the one next to him is Oishi Syuichiroh, he is the vice captain and my partner in doubles we are known as the golden pair."

It took a moment for all the names to sink into place and another for Cindy to realize that the one name Eiji had stopped talking. Looking at Ryoma, Cindy took his drink. Knowing that she had his attention smiled and said through her teeth in English, "introduction?"

Cindy covered by taking a sip of his Ponta drink and giving it back to him. She grimiced and shrugged when she tasted the drink and took a swig of her own soda.

Ryoma looked at his teammates and then at Cindy and then at his soda and smirked, "My name is Echizen Ryoma…" he got out and stopped with an "oomph" when Cindy elbowed him in the chest. "**This is Ling Cindy**." Cindy's eyebrow rose at the order of her name, and realized she was indeed in Japan when they said her last name befor her first name. _I have to remember that they use different name order._ She thought to herself as Ryoma continued, "She was my best friend when I was living in the United States."

**"Yoroshiku, It is very nice to me you all. I am sorry, I don't speak Japanese very well."**She said with a slight bow. They reassured her that her Japanese was very well indeed and that she would fool any one as a native**_ "_You guys should get ready your captain looks like he is about to start the practice again."**

_**"**_Ryoma I am going to find the girl's changing room and then I am going to go for a run while you finish up practice. How much longer are you going to be? An hour?"

He shrugged_,** "**_an hour and a half, maybe**_."_**

**_"_Okay, I'll see you then_."_ **Cindy watched as Ryoma went back into the tennis courts. Now to find the girls' locker room, she waited until the captain assigned the training before going to find it. They were going to hit colored balls to the same color cones, the captain was the only one that didn't participate. He was heading out of the tennis enclosure and Cindy decided to catch him**. _"_Konnichiwa, my name is Cindy Ling. I just arrive from America, and I am going attending this school as a first year. You are the captain right? Nice to meet you_."_**( A/N: from now on what is said is in Japanese unless bolded)

"Hai, I am Tezuka Kunimitsu," he said without taking his eyes off the court, then he turned to face Cindy, "yoroshiku." He turned back to the courts when he finished. After a bit, he turned to face her again, "Can I help you with something?"

"hai, hai" She said, an blushed slightly, a little flustered by his monotonous voice and expressionless face, "gomen, I was wondering where the girls changing room was."

The captain told her the general direction and turned his eyes back to his team_. O-kay, I think I know the general directions, maybe it would be easier to change in a bathroom or something. Walking is excersie I guess. She thought as she walked, Found it, he gave pretty good directions. _She went into the girls changing room.

It was a lot different than what Cindy was expecting, used to the locker rooms, she did not expect the lack of actual lockers._ People here must be really trusting if they don't see the need for locks,_ but being born and raised in a big city, she just wasn't trusting of people's "good nature" so after she changed into her workout clothes she packed everything into her tennis bag and went to find the mens' tennis courts again

As she walked she received strange looks from both guys and girls_. What? Is there a giant booger hanging out of my nose? Geeze…_ When she reached the tennis courts she waved Ryoma over to talk, the gesture seemed to draw every else's attention on the court as well. Ryoma looked at his captian and at his nod Ryoma slowly walked towards Cindy.

_"_**Dude, can you watch my stuff? Lockers seem to be against these peoples religion**_." _She said in English, tilting her head towards the main group of guys_. "_**B-T-W, what the hell are they staring at?"**her voice tinged with anger.

He pulled the lip of his cap down slightly over his face, "it's probably what you are wearing…" he said in a quiet voice.

"**Whatthe hell iswrong with what I am wearing? I am just in my workout clothes**." Cindy looked from her Nike sneakers, her black Adidas sweatpants with the three white stripes running down the sides of the pants, and her matching sports bra, she didn't think that bad. She gave Ryoma a questioning look.

He sighed and gave her a you-cant-really-be- this-stupid look. Which she raised an eyebrow and gave him an I-know-all-your-secrets-care-to-test-me-on-how-stupid-I-really-am, look. "People in Japan are really quiet, and reserved." Cindy only looked more puzzled, he sighed again, "they are really conservative." When that failed to register on Cindy's face he finally said, "the sport's bra? Cover up more skin."

"Oh…" She went into her bag and pulled out a spare tee-shirt she usually had for windy days. She looked at it, it said "**Winners Go All the Way**." She shrugged and put it on, _they probably don't even know what the connotation of that phrase is. _

Cindy heard only a few audible gasps of understanding coming from the guys, but the majority of them kept on staring at her. The tennis courts didn't return to normal until the captain ordered everyone to run laps.

"Better? Can I leave my stuff with you?" Cindy said, making an conscious effort switching from English to Japanese.

"I guess," he pointed to one of the benches inside the chain-link enclosure. He walked with her to the bench where she placed her bag.

"So do you have to run as well? I'm sorry, I didn't mean for you to get in trouble."

His only response was to tug down on his cap and shrug.

"I'll run with you for a bit before I do my regular run, is that okay?" she said as she turned to walk back outside the enclosure with Ryoma.

Another shrug and an "I guess,"

She was used to his bad conversational skills, it was as bad as she has always known his. People outside his immediate family and close friends believed that he didn't speak because he thought that they weren't good enough to be spoken to, in short because he had a huge ego. That just wasn't true, albeit he had a monumental ego, it was truely because he believed that no matter how much stuff a person might say unless he or she can back it up, it was just a waste of oxygen.

Cindy and Ryoma started running with the group gathering outside the fence, they weren't too far behind the leaders of the pack.


End file.
